Cortázar, and Bruce Chatwin's classic,
"In Patagonià' ($80).
The Art of Shaving sells travel sets, if
you want to pretend that good grooming
will be a priority for him as he treks up
Mt. Kilimanjaro (373 Madison Avenue,
at 46th Street; $150).
bye, fun and games; hello, Dustbuster
(Home Depot, 40 West 23rd Street; $40).
'We do saywe have some of the best tow-
els," a salesman at Restoration Hardware
(935 Broadway, at 22nd Street) told me,
regarding the storè s terry-cloth collection,
which compensates for its costliness with
cushiness (bath towel, $26). After you've
broken it to your son that cups and plates
don't clean themselves, you can present
dorm bed) in cotton blends and T-shirt
material. There are even sheets with the
logos of your daughter's school, should
she need to be reminded of her where-
abouts upon waking ($29.99 for a twin
set). Not that your grad would ever not
sleep alone, but I got a kick out of Ur-
ban Outfitters' graphic pillowcase pairs
that form a picture when placed side by
side. The sleeping tiger is especially
dreamy (urbanoutfitters.com;
$28).
What can I recommend at
Fishs Eddy, the emporium of
dishes, glasses, and odds and ends
for the kitchen endowed with a
sense of irony (889 Broadway, at
19th Street)? Everything. Ce-
ramic platters patterned with floor
plans of two-bedroom railroad
apartments and duplexes with ter-
races will make you sick with envy
(plates, $7.95-$32.95). Republi-
can mugs depict, among others,
Strom Thurmond, Spiro Agnew,
Herbert Hoover, and a couple
of Bushes; across the aisle are
Democratic mugs portraying two
Roosevelts, two Clintons, one
Jesse Jackson, and a Truman. Pric-
ing is nonpartisan ($4.98).
At Amazon.com you can get
toolboxes with the whole kit and
caboodle, as well as some with
slightly less caboodle (Denali
hundred-and-fifteen-piece Home
Repair Tool Kit, $50). The Swiss
Family Robinson could have built
a five-star château if only they'd
had the SwissChamp XA VT
Swiss Army knife, whose eighty
functions include a magnifying
glass, a timer, a chisel, a barom-
eter, a fish scaler, and a hook
disgorger (Paragon Sports; $349).
Or maybe you just want to
open a beer (basic Swiss Army knife with
bottle opener, $18).
Other ideas for the starter kitchen:
There are more than nine hundred cookie
jars available at sharonscookiejars.com,
ranging from a Pinocchio with a chipped
nose to a vintage W. C. Fields with a per-
fect bulbous schnozzola ($14.99, $469).
"We live in a Cabin on a lake in Rural
East Texas and have been collecting Cookie
Jars for at least 45 years," writes someone
(presumably Sharon) on the Web site. "It
is now time to downsize." Cookbooks are
T he day will surely come when the
graduate will have an interview.
Brooks Brothers pioneered the
wash-and-wear suit in 1953, but
they've since marched on, and
Lands' End has taken up the
slack-or should I say slacks. A
three-button khaki chino blazer
can be tossed in the wash (Lands-
end. com; $89.50). Has he ever
heard of a washing machine? The
starter shirt at Brooks Brothers
comes in pastels, saturated solids,
prints, and stripes; it can be
thrown in the washer and does
not need ironing (346 Madison
Avenue, at 44th Street; $79.50).
"Ties with stripes or small prints
are appropriate for work, and
a red tie is the hardest to wear,"
said Ines Hyun, a saleswoman at
Hickey Freeman (543 Madison
Avenue, at 55th Street), who
would be comfortable with the
job of wardrobing the world:
"Every man needs gray slacks
with a navy blazer and two suits-
a solid and a pinstripè' (silk ties,
$120-$155; blazer, $995; slacks,
$350-$495; suits, $1,395-$1,895).
J. Crew has narrow cloth ties-a
red-based madras plaid and a tur-
quoise check seem particularly in-
terview-friendly($59.50, $49.50).
For rah-rah types, J. Press has
cuffiinks emblazoned with the
crests from a smattering of col- When did twenty-one became the new retirement age?
leges (380 Madison Avenue, at
47th Street; $98), and Alfred Dunhill
has sterling-silver selections in bulldog
and tiger (545 Madison Avenue, at 55th
Street; $340, $265). Guys lacking school
spirit might like Paul Smith's enamel
cuffiinks in signature stripe, harlequin
checks, or the oblong studs that are deco-
rated with miniature cars suspended
from cranes (paulsmith.co.uk; $125,
I $95, $125).
I-
2 To move into a room of onè s own is to
ð covet, for the very first time, all that one
z
used to call tiresomely bourgeois. Good-
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him with some dish towels from Kiteya
SoHo (464 Broome Street), a whimsical
Japanese boutique owned by a mother-
daughter team. The towels, which come
boldly decorated with, for instance, motifs
of tools, chopsticks, and Japanese hair
combs, also can be worn as scarves ($13-
$15). Receiving bed linens as a high-
school graduation grrt is kind of a gyp, but,
still, it must be noted that Bed Bath &Be-
yond has cornered the collegiate sheet
market, providing twin extra-longs (the
peculiar specifications of the standard
THE NEW YORKER, MAY 31, 2010 35